Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a 2D action-adventure game developed and published by Konami in 1997. Its Japanese title is Akumaj Dracula X: Gekka no Yas kyoku officially translated as Devil's Castle Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight). It is the 13th installment of the Castlevania series, the first installment released for the PlayStation and is a direct sequel to Akumaj Dracula X Chi no Rondo.Symphony of the Night was an important milestone of the Castlevania series. It steered the series away from the standard level-by-level platforming formula of older titles and introduced a new style of open-ended gameplay mixed with RPG-like elements that would be emulated by most of its successors. A similar, earlier form of this type of gameplay existed in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. The development of these features can be attributed to Koji Igarashi, the game's director and one of the team's newest members. Igarashi, a noted fan of 2D games, was instrumental in refining thegame's control scheme.